Do we like Hun Manet?
Our score: 3 out of 10. Nothing found on LGBTQ+ people or women either way, but rights groups document a wave of arrests of critics under his government, and the good on the record is thin.
The legitimacy question dogs him. Weeks after the vote he told the UN it was “free and fair”, while protesters outside said otherwise, and former opposition MP Mu Sochua said “Hun Manet is not a free man”. He did not mention the banning of the main opposition Candlelight Party in that speech, per RFA.
The harm check: we found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ people, trans people or women, good or bad, in what we read. On civic space, Human Rights Watch said in January 2025 he had followed his father's path, and its Bryony Lau said “Democracy in Cambodia exists in name alone.” Human Rights Now says arrests of critics reached a record 131 in April 2026, and that the Supreme Court upheld 14-year treason convictions of two journalists in June.
The border war with Thailand is the big recent story. In a February 2026 Reuters interview he said Thai forces still sit “deep into Cambodian territory in many areas” and that about 80,000 people can't go home. Thailand's government earlier called his account of a July 2025 ceasefire call “false and misleading”, and its army accused him of feeding Malaysia's prime minister “false narratives”. A Thai spokesperson also said shelling of civilian zones “amounted to war crimes”, which is Thailand's allegation, not a court finding. Where you land depends on whose map you trust.
Then there's the scam industry. The US indicted Chen Zhi of the Prince Group, who was an adviser to Hun Manet and his father with cabinet-minister rank, and Foreign Policy reports 250-plus scam factories staffed by over 100,000 trafficked and forced workers, per a UN estimate. Chen was extradited to China in January 2026, and Prince Group denies wrongdoing. Hun Manet says fighting “tech-savvy crimes” is a priority, but the reporting we read shows no direct reply from him on Chen.
The good stuff is honestly thin in what we could verify. Royal pardons freed opposition figures Sun Chanthy in February 2026 and Kem Sokha after his 27-year conviction was upheld in May, but both came after jailings, and the king traditionally pardons at the government's request. No reason was given for Sun Chanthy's release.
So the answer is no for now. He's polished, he's educated, and he inherited a system that human rights groups say keeps silencing critics, with no sign of him changing it. If he lets journalists out and starts answering the scam questions, we'll look again.